PHOENIX — Saying he was doing what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted, a Queen Creek senator got Republican colleagues to vote to outlaw diversity, equity and inclusion programs in state and local governments and the university system.
Senate Bill 1694, crafted by Jake Hoffman, bans the use of government money for any such program. It also forbids a public agency from requiring workers to engage in those programs, allowing those employees to sue.
But Hoffman told colleagues he’s not against the ideas. What he opposes, he said, is what these programs include, ideas Hoffman argued actually work against the concepts of inclusion and equality.
